kingdom equally independent of Spain and France. Rome
had closed its gates. He ordered the assault, and was one
of the first to fall, but his soldiers avenged him cruelly. In
less than an hour the city was captured (May 6); the pillage
lasted nine months, and the brigands were stopped only by
a frightful pestilence which decimated their numbers. In
the time of the Goths and Vandals Rome had suffered
nothing more terrible. The convents were forced, the
altars stripped, the tombs profaned, the library of the
Vatican sacked, the masterpieces of Michael Angelo torn
down as monuments of idolatry.
In all Christendom there was only one cry against these
new barbarians. Francis I., slow, contrary to his habit, in
acting, finally sent a powerful army into Italy. Lautrec,
98 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION.
who commanded it, reconquered the Milanais and besieged
Naples by land while Doria blockaded it by sea. All was
over with the Spanish power in Italy, had not the king
committed a mistake. Distrustful of Genoa, he wished by
making of Savona a great port to give her a rival whom he
could easily control. Andrew Doria, Genoese above all,
made remonstrances, and, as they were not listened to, he
passed with his fleet to the side of the emperor. The sea
becoming free, Naples was revictualed ; the army of
Lautrec in its turn suffered from famine ; he himself yielded
to the pest, and the remnants of his troops capitulated in
Aversa (1528). Another French army, commanded by the
Count of St. Pol, was destroyed the following year at
Landriano, and the peninsula lost to the French. Since
that day it has remained under the power or the influence
of the house of Austria, which France has twice made
recoil, at Rivoli and at Solferino, and which has now com-
pletely departed from Italy.
The emperor came himself to reap the fruits of his gen-
erals' victories and of his rival's faults. He betook himself
to Bologna, summoned thither Clement VII. and dictated
his conditions. Venice restored what it had taken ; the
dukes of Ferrara and Milan acknowledged themselves
vassals of the empire, likewise did the Marquis of Mantua,
who was created a duke ; Savoy and Montferrat renounced
the French alliance. That done, Clement VII. placed the
two crowns of Italy and of the empire upon the forehead
of Charles V. (1530). Florence alone protested against
this subjection of. Italy. Defended a whole year by
Michael Angelo, she was obliged at last to open her gates
to the Imperialists ; they re-established the Medici, who
henceforth reigned there for the benefit of Spain.
Charles V. was now apparently ready to attack France.
But peace with Francis I. was necessary, since a religious
war was on the point of breaking out in Germany ; Sou-
lei'man was pressing his redoubtable Janissaries even to
the walls of Vienna, and Henry VIII. threatened to break
the Austrian alliance. The treaty of Cambrai was less
harsh than that of Madrid, since the emperor renounced
his claims to Burgundy, but it was just as humiliating, since
the King of France betrayed his Italian allies, abandoned
his pretensions to Naples, recognized Sforza as Duke of
Milan, and ceded Tournay and Hesdin together with his
suzerainty over Flanders and Artois (1529).
CHAPTER IX.
THE SECOND PERIOD OF RIVALRY BETWEEN THE
HOUSES OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. INTERVEN-
TION OF TURKEY AND ENGLAND (1529-47).
New System of French Alliances. Charles V. before Tunis and Algiers.
Third War with France (1536-38). Fourth War (1542-44).
THE rivalry of the French and Burgundian houses, begun
at the bridge of Montereau in 1419 by the assassination of
John the Fearless, had under Charles VI.,
of N Freac]?*aiii > - Charles VII., and Louis XL, brought great
ances - perils to the kingdom. These were ended
by the death of Charles the Bold. But upon the broken
trunk of the Burgundian house was grafted a new
dynasty, the Austro-Spanish. So long as it was divided
and represented by children, the French kings could ven-
ture upon the brilliant but dangerous and useless career of
foreign conquest ; this was the period of the first Italian
expedition (1494-1516). When the dynasty was reunited
in the hands of a prudent and sagacious man who wished
to become a second Charlemagne a new conflict opened.
The first had brought France Burgundy ; the second cost
France the title of suzerain over Flanders and Artois, and
shut against it Italy, dominated by the house of Austria.
From that time the kingdom was inclosed throughout the
whole length of its land frontier from the Adour to the
Somme by a circle of hostile possessions, including Spain,
Italy, Franche Comte, Germany, and the Netherlands, all
united in the hands of the emperor. To break this men-
acing circle the sword of France, which, moreover, had
been shattered at Pavia, was not enough ; it was neces-
sary to invoke the aid of all those whosoever they were
whom this imperial ambition threatened.
Defeat had rendered Francis I. the service of diminishing,
100 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II.
if not extinguishing, his fatal inclination to imitate the
prowess of the ancient knights. He now comprehended
that a soldier's bravery was not sufficient to bring political
affairs to a good result ; he sought and welcomed allies
without regarding the names they bore : the schismatic
King of England, the Protestants of Germany, even
what was then still more odious the Ottomans. From
England Francis I. derived little assistance. Henry VIII.
(1509-47) had assumed as device, "Whomsoever I defend
is master," promising himself, indeed, to defend nobody to
the finish. He could in fact hold the balance equal be-
tween the two powerful rivals who disputed the supremacy
of Europe. But this voluptuous and sanguinary prince
was too much the slave of his passions to follow undevi-
atingly a constant and uniform system. Under Louis XII.
he had taken part in the great coalition against France.
The victory at Marignano excited his envy. After the
election of Charles V. he appeared to incline toward that
one of the two adversaries who wore but a single crown,
but at the interview of the Field of the Cloth of Gold
Francis wounded his vanity and lost his alliance. In 1521
he signed a treaty with Charles V., and some months after
declared war against France. Francis replied to this
attack by an alliance with Scotland and the Irish rebels.
In 1523 an English army came as far as the Oise. After
Pavia, Charles having become too powerful, Henry VIII.
negotiated with the regents of France and caused the in-
sertion in the treaty of this peculiar clause, that Louise of
Savoy should consent to no dismemberment of France in
favor of Charles V. He understood that the integrity of
this kingdom guaranteed the independence of Europe.
Francis on escaping from captivity confirmed the treaty
made by his mother ; but Henry, content with having, by
alarming Charles V., drawn Francis I. from his hands,
returned to neutrality, desiring the triumph of France no
more than that of Austria.
Another matter at that moment was occupying all his
attention, the question of divorce from his first wife, the
aunt of the emperor. In 1529 he consulted on this subject
the French universities ; they were careful not to give an
adverse opinion, and during several years Henry drew
nearer France, but when the war broke forth anew he was
already becoming alienated from it.
CHAP. IX.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 101
It was not so with the Ottoman alliance. The Ottomans
had as their sultan the celebrated Souleiman I. As war-
like as his father, Selim, but friendly to the arts, protector
of letters, author of the code entitled the Khanounname",
Souleiman I. deserved his triple surname of Conqueror,
Magnificent, and Legislator. Before him the Ottomans
were to the Christians nothing but barbarians who came to
impose an execrated religion by the sword. During his
reign they took a place among European peoples and filled
a role important to European destinies. It was Francis I.
who introduced the Ottomans to the politics of Europe.
He has been reproached for his relations with the enemies
of Christianity as fora crime and they seemed to cause him
to blush. In reality the Ottoman empire was less danger-
ous to Europe than the daily increasing power and ambi-
tion of the house of Austria. Besides, although Francis I.
obtained the Ottoman alliance, Charles V. had sought it.
Finally, religion was the gainer inasmuch as the Eastern
Christians, as well as all the merchants who sailed under the
French flag, found a certain security in the protection of the
French consuls. Religion lost nothing, for the great con-
quests of Souleiman over the Christians are antecedent to
the treaty concluded in 1534 with the King of France: it
was in 1521 that after twelve assaults he captured Belgrade,
the bulwark of Hungary ; in 1522 that at the head of
150,000 men and 400 ships he took Rhodes from the
knights despite the heroic resistance of the grand master,
Villiers de ITsle-Adam, who defended himself five months ;
finally, in 1526 that he made himself master of Peterwardein
and gained the great victory of Mohacz. He had passed
the Danube with 200,000 men and destroyed the Hungarian
army on that fatal day when perished Louis II., the last of
the Jagellons of Hungary.
The crown of Hungary reverted to Ferdinand of Austria,
brother-in-law of Louis II. But against this brother of
Charles V., Souleiman supported a pretender of the Magyar
race, John Zapoli. All Hungary was ravaged by the Otto-
mans. Buda even fell into their power (1529). Zapoli
acknowledged himself vassal of the Porte, the Prince of
Moldavia did the same, and Souleiman, finding nothing else
to arrest him on the Danube, penetrated into Austria and
laid siege to Vienna. It was on August 3 that the treaty
of peace of Cambrai was signed when the Ottomans were
102 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II.
already marching upon Vienna, where they arrived Septem-
ber 26. Comparison of these two dates shows why the
" treaty of the ladies " was signed. Vienna was garri-
soned by 20,000 soldiers who had made the Italian cam-
paigns, and had as governor the valiant Count of Salm.
Twenty assaults were successively repulsed. The sultan
had to retrace his steps. He endeavored to forget this
reverse by crowning with his own hands at Buda his vas-
sal John Zapoli King of Hungary.
Two years later he conquered Slavonia ; in 1532 he re-
appeared in Hungary at the head of 300,000 men. Happily
Guns, a little fortress of Styria, delayed him a month.
During the siege of that city he received the first embassy
of Francis I. with extraordinary magnificence. He in-
tended to invade Germany, but Charles V. had had time to
assemble 150,000 combatants. Never since the crusades had
Christian Europe united so considerable forces. Lutherans
and Catholics joined hands against the Crescent, and
Francis I. did not dare to support his redoubtable ally by a
diversion upon the Rhine or Italy. There took place, how-
ever, no general action. At the end of six weeks the sultan
learned that a Spanish fleet had just entered the Dardanelles
and was menacing Constantinople ; he withdrew (1532).
Not before 1543 did Francis I. cease to make a mystery
of his relations with Soulei'man. That year was concluded
with the Porte the first of those treaties, known as capitu-
lations, by virtue of which France obtained the protectorate
of the holy places, the right of establishing its factories in
the harbors of the Levant, and freedom of commerce for
its flag alone. Such were the public clauses of the alliance.
But in secret the sultan promised to attack Naples, while
the king should assail the Milanais. At the same time the
king made overtures to the Lutheran princes who had just
formed against the emperor the League of Smalkalde(i532).
The Pope cherished no resentment against him for it ; at
least his wrath did not hold against the offer which Francis
made him of marrying the dauphin to the niece of the
pontiff, Catherine de Medici. Clement VII. died almost
immediately after ; the advantage hoped from this misalli-
ance with the Florentine bankers' daughter was com-
promised. But the pontifical policy inclined to the side of
France after the house of Austria possessed Naples and
coveted Milan. Even at Rome religious interest was sub-
CHAP. IX.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 103
ordinated to political interest. There, moreover, around
the chair of St. Peter the two interests were identical. In
France by alliance with the Ottomans the doctrine of
interest was carried to the extreme, satisfied by the saying
of Francis I. that " when the wolves rushed upon his flock
it was surely his right to set the dogs upon them." It is a
truer statement still that with the great modern societies
great national interests were born, and that national ques-
tions now took precedence of religious questions proof
that the Middle Ages were really dead.
Francis also strengthened his alliance with the Scots by
marrying to their king his eldest daughter (1536), and on
her death Mary of Lorraine ; later he signed the first
French treaties with Denmark (1541), thus endeavoring to
form around France a coalition of secondary states so as
to make head against Charles, who aspired to universal
supremacy. At the same time he organized a national
infantry of 42,000 men (legions provinciates) in order to
no longer be at the discretion of Swiss or German mercen-
aries.
While Francis I. allied himself to the Lutherans and
infidels, Charles gloriously resisted the latter, and although
Charles v ^ tnus c ' om S he served only his own ambi-
before Tunis tion and interest, could represent himself as
Thid wtr g with the defender of Christianity. The Ottoman
France (1536- marine was making menacing progress under
the direction of the celebrated Khaireddin, or
Barbaroussa. This pirate, become admiral of the Ottoman
fleets, incessantly traversed the Mediterranean ; and,
while in Asia the sultan was taking from the Persians Tauris
and Bagdad (1534), which they recaptured the following
year, Barbaroussa was driving the Bey of Tunis, Mouley
Hassan, from his kingdom. Algiers and Tunis became, as
formerly Carthage under Genseric, and Biserta under the
Aglabites, the resort of a multitude of corsairs. Security
disappeared along all the coast of Spain and Italy. Against
these nests of pirates Charles V. fitted out two celebrated
expeditions. In the first with 400 ships commanded by
Doria he captured La Gouletta at the entrance of the Gulf
of Tunis and set free 20,000 captives (1535) ; but less
happy six years after, at Algiers he saw his fleet dispersed
by a tempest and could hardly save its remains (1541). The
emperor better protected the commerce of Christian nations
104 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK It.
by ceding the island of Malta to the knights of Rhodes
( I 53)- This intrepid militia, the Mite of all the nobility
of Europe, with equal success and devotion acted as police
of the Mediterranean. It undertook against the pirates a
war of ruse and stratagem in which they did not always have
the upper hand. However, it could not prevent a rival of
Barbaroussa, the corsair Dragout, from making himself
master of Tripoli in 1551. The Porte, already in control
of Egypt and suzerain of the Barbary states, then found
itself solidly established upon almost all the northern coast
of Africa.
An evil act of the emperor broke the peace of Cambrai.
At the instigation of Charles V. the Duke of Milan, violat-
ing international law, seized and executed in his dungeon
Merveille, a French envoy. Francis was preparing to cross
the Alps to avenge this outrage when the duke died (1535) ;
at once he put forward his claims to the Milanais, and in
order to facilitate its conquest seized the states of the Duke
of Savoy. This house had remained constantly faithful to
France from the time of Louis XI., and had favored all
French operations beyond the mountains, which without
the assistance of the " gatekeeper of the Alps " would
have been difficult. But in 1521 the duke Charles III.
had married a sister-in-law of Charles V., and from that
moment had shown only an unstable friendship, which
changed after Pavia and the treaty of Cambrai into senti-
ments of hostility. Master of Savoy and Piedmont, which
are the two keys of Italy, Francis from there held in
check the Spanish domination in the peninsula. But he
let himself be persuaded by the promises of Charles V.,
who being by no means ready for war, entered upon perfid-
ious negotiations to gain time. When he had terminated
these preparations he threw off the mask, and in the con-
sistory of Rome, in the presence of all the ambassadors of
the Christian states, uttered against his rival the most vio-
lent menaces and insults (April 5).
Through lack of money Francis I was obliged to hold
himself on the defensive ; moreover, he imprudently in-
trusted the defense of Piedmont to the incapable and
treacherous Marquis of Saluzzo. All the strongholds were
surrendered to the Imperialists, and Charles entered Prov-
ence at the head of 60,000 combatants. This impassive
man, ordinarily so self-controlled, was hardly recognizable.
CHAP. IX.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 105
He flattered himself that he should conquer France in one
campaign, in advance distributed offices and dignities, and
recommended his historiographer, Paolo Giovio, to provide
himself with ink and pens, because he said he was going to
" cut out work for him." Montmorency, whom Francis
had charged with the defense, did not dare to risk a
battle against the veteran Spanish troops. He made a
desert of Provence. All the fortresses except Aries and
Marseilles were dismantled. The wells were filled up, the
mills and barns burned. The inhabitants fled to the forests
or the mountains. The emperor wandered two months in
the midst of this appalling desolation. Repulsed before
Marseilles, he captured Aries and wished there to be crowned
King of Provence : nobles, magistrates, priests, all had fled.
He marched upon Avignon ; a victory alone could restore
the temper of his troops. Montmorency remained immo-
bile despite the ardor of the French. The Imperialists then
retreated, harassed by the peasants and cut off by dysentery.
Of this imposing army which was to conquer France
Charles led back only the remains (September, 1536). He
hastened to quit Italy and went to Spain to hide his humili-
ation.
The Provencals had acted admirably ; the Picards,
menaced at the same time by another imperial army, did the
same. At St. Riquier, at Peronne, the women fought upon
the ramparts beside the men. The Normans saw no enemy
at home, so they went to seek one. Their corsairs gained
200,000 gold crowns in prizes from the Spaniards.
Francis I. opened the following campaign by a ridiculous
ceremony ; Charles V. cited to appear before the parlia-
ment of Paris, was declared by contumacy guilty of felony
and deprived of his fiefs of Artois and Flanders. This pro-
cedure ended only in an insignificant war marked by vari-
ous sieges. The two parties, equally exhausted, concluded
a ten months' truce as to the northern frontier. On the
south Francis I. reconquered Piedmont. However, Soulei'-
man, who had just subdued the princes of Georgia and
Albania at the extremities of his empire, crushed the Aus-
trians at Essek (1537), while his admiral, Barbaroussa, dev-
astated the coasts of the kingdom of Naples. An immense
cry of rage rose in Italy against the King of France, the ally
of the Ottomans. The Pope made himself the mouthpiece
of public opinion and forced the two rivals to accept him as
106 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II.
mediator : despite their resentments, at Nice they concluded
a truce for ten years. Each of them kept his conquests.
The Duke of Savoy was sacrificed (1538).
Souleiman could not be sacrificed so easily. The two
princes who disputed Hungary, Ferdinand of Austria and
Zapoli, Prince of Transylvania, had divided this kingdom by
the treaty of Wuitzen (1536). The sultan under the pre-
tense of defending the rights of the son of Zapoli, menaced
by the Germans, defeated the latter, and retook Buda and
almost all Hungary (1541). Three years before he had
conquered Yemen and equipped on the Red Sea a fleet to
succor the Mussulmans of India against the Portuguese.
Thus the standards of the sultan floated from the mouths
of the Rhone to those of the Indus, and his power extended
from the Caucasus to the African Atlas.
After having signed the truce of Nice, Charles V. and
Francis I. had an interview at Aigues-Mortes. Montmor-
ency, a skillful courtier, who under a stern exterior con-
cealed a boundless ambition and cupidity, had persuaded
the king that the sole means of acquiring the Milanais was
to contract a solid alliance with Charles V. Charles at no
price was willing to cede this province. But the friendship
of the king at this moment was for him a piece of good for-
tune, for his troops were revolting in Italy and Sicily, and
the cortes of Spain refused him money. Scarcely was he
freed from these embarrassments when there arose a new
peril. The powerful city of Ghent revolted and offered
itself to France. The king thought only of the Milanais,
which was useless to him ; he refused Flanders, which would
have been a most precious acquisition. He did more :
betraying those who had trusted him, he informed the
emperor of their propositions, invited him to pass through
France in order to more quickly chastise the rebels,
and gave him a magnificent reception. He believed he
would obtain the Milanais ; he gained neither Ghent nor
Milan.
After the Flemings submitted Charles V. ignored his
promises. " Let them show me anything written," said he ;
and he declared that he reserved the investiture of the
Milanias for his son Philip. The king, ashamed of having
been duped, resolved on a new war. Neither the oppor-
tunity nor the pretexts were long wanting.
Two secret agents whom he sent to Souleiman were assas-
CHAP. IX.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 107
sinated by del Guasto, Governor of the Milanais (1540).
Del Guasto believed he would find on them
Fourth war ... ........... ..
(1542-44). the formal proof of the king s alliance with
the Ottomans. Happily the dispatches had
remained in -Piedmont. A few months after Charles V.
attacked the Algerian pirates. We have already seen that
the expedition completely failed (1541).
This attempt and this reverse made Francis I. hasten
his preparations. Sure of James V. of Scotland, who had
espoused his oldest daughter in 1536, and on her death a
princess of the house of Lorraine, he contracted with the
kings, of Sweden and Denmark the first alliance which
united France and the Scandinavian states. Lastly he set
on foot five armies at once to attack Roussillon, the Nether-
lands, and Italy. Success did not correspond to so many
efforts. The campaign of 1542 was without result, but
Francis I. lost a useful ally. Henry VIII. had wished to
draw the King of Scotland into the schism ; James V.
refused, and menaced with war by his powerful neighbor,
anticipated him by himself invading England. Many of
the Scotch nobles who had adopted the reform of Calvin
abandoned their king at the moment of action. James V.
died a few days later ; he left by Mary of Lorraine a daugh-
ter who had just been born, Mary Stuart. The following
year Henry VIII. formed an offensive alliance with Charles
V.; the two princes were to enter France at once and to
divide the kingdom. The emperor obliged the Duke of
Cleves, ally of Francis I., to submit, but he did not succeed
in breaking through the northern frontier, and he besieged
Landrecies in vain. Meanwhile Souleiman attacked the
Austrian dominions on the east ; he mastered what had so
far escaped him in Hungary; he penetrated into Austria, and
his fleet, united to that of France, bombarded Nice. The
city was taken, but not the citadel. The Ottomans wintered
at Toulon (1543).
The following campaign opened by abrilliant victory. The
French had invested Carignano ; del Guasto approached
to save the city. Officers and soldiers, and most of all
d'Enghien, their young chieftain, were eager to answer the
defiance of the Spaniards. But a precise order of the king
forbade risking a general battle. The opportunity appeared
so excellent that the Duke d'Enghien sent Montluc into
France to beg permission to attack the enemy ; he promised
lo8 CONSEQUENCES Of THE REVOLUTION.